IRELAND – Taste and Nutrition company Kerry has announced that its chicken stock base has earned the Upcycled Certified® status from the Upcycled Food Association.
Upcycled foods use ingredients that otherwise would not have gone to human consumption, are procured and produced using verifiable supply chains and have a positive impact on the environment.
Currently, one-third of food produced in the United States goes to waste, according to ReFED, which needlessly wastes resources and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.
Upcycling food that would otherwise go to waste is an important tool manufacturers have in the effort to correct this global problem, and that is why this certification is so important to Kerry.
Kerry’s chicken stocks are created from chicken meat and bones that are typically discarded or sent to a rendering facility.
The company partners with multiple meat processors to procure bones after animals are processed at their sites.
The bones are cooked in water at high pressure, resulting in a rich and succulent broth high in collagen protein. To this base other ingredients are added, such as fresh vegetable broth or natural and organic flavours.
As solutions such as the one Kerry offers exist in the market, to earn this distinction, the chicken stock had to meet rigorous standards that were verified by independent third-party evaluators.
Now these stocks can be marketed as officially certified upcycled base ingredients for use in retail broths, savory soups, poultry and red meat applications.
Kerry said that the Upcycled Certified status also allows our customers to pursue on-pack labeling for upcycling and sustainability, which in turn helps consumers choose to support sustainable food products.
Kerry upcycles more food than just stocks. For example, bruised strawberries – which feature a cosmetic defect but are still nutritious and delicious – are a key flavour ingredient in some of our products.
The company has also helped innovate ways to reuse other ingredients that would have been disposed, such as using spent grains from beer brewing in dough and using leftover fruit puree as flavouring for spirits.
Earlier, Kerry launched Biobake™ EgR, an innovative enzyme solution that decreases the number of eggs needed in a wide variety of baking applications.
Kerry’s new enzyme system, developed for baked goods manufacturers to address the rising raw material costs of eggs, allows for a reduction in the quantity of egg used in recipes.
The innovative enzyme system also provides a solution to regulatory and ethical concerns, with the European Commission aiming to phase out the use of cages in animal agriculture by 2027.
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